Morning Routine
by isobeljones2000
Summary: Lexi must do whatever she can to support her son - even if that means setting herself a rather harsh morning routine. Based on the writing prompt: 'Write a scene that includes frost, cornflakes and boots.' Implications of Tom/Lexi


_A/N) Writing prompt: 'Write a scene that includes frost, cornflakes and boots.'_

 _I wrote this story a few months ago and didn't get to type it up until now. Hope you enjoy!_

 _5:45 am._

The alarm was relentless, its acrid sound a knife cutting through her reverie, slicing away any remaining chances of further sleep. Lexi had to work all her resolve into reaching her vulnerable hand out into the bitterly cold air from the relative warmth of her bed to shut off her alarm. The chilly mornings of winter were both a curse and a blessing; at least they forced her to properly wake up in the mornings as she would be too cold to sink back into the clinging arms of sleep. Back in the summer, when she was new to whole routine of having to get up at ungodly hours in the morning to get out to work, the mornings were warm and she had once fallen into the beguiling trap of waking up just enough to turn off her alarm before dozing off again. Her boss had not been amused when she had rushed in at seven backed only by the feeble excuse of: "My alarm didn't go off." Needless to say, she had never been overly anxious to repeat the mistake.

 _5:49 am._ No more time to waste. She was expected in at 6:15 am. It served her well now, having been the precise Nekross sibling way back then; it helped her work to the harsh unforgiving routine she had set for herself around seven months back. It was getting towards the realms of late January, in the very middle of winter. A harsh, difficult time, she was rapidly learning. Especially in their tiny apartment with minimal heating and temperamental electricity that only worked around two thirds of the time.

5:51 am and she was up, ignoring the near-freezing biting into her vulnerable human skin covered only by a long thin nightdress, being very careful to be quiet in order not to disturb her gently snoring son in the camp bed across from hers. It was a three room apartment: their shared bedroom, a tiny dark bathroom and a kitchen/living room space where they spent most of their time. Pulling on a blue cardigan over the dress - she tended to wear a lot of blue, sometimes unconsciously, it kept the memories alive - she headed into the small bathroom where she hurriedly splashed some icy water across her face to wash away any traces of sleep. It made her gasp slightly, but there was no chance of warm water at this hour. Benny might be lucky later that day, though.

Then she quickly dressed in the shop uniform consisting of a black pair of trousers and a faded greyish-tinged polo short emblazoned with the shop logo. It was by no means flattering, but Lexi didn't really care; they were free and fairly good quality clothes. Then she tied back her long blond hair in a tight ponytail - shop health and safety regulations. When she had first signed up for early morning cleaning shifts at the local supermarket, she had questioned this obscure rule, saying that having her hair loose while cleaning as she liked it was hardly going to contaminate any of the products. Now she kept quiet. Arguing would just get her in trouble. And trouble meant docked pay: something that she couldn't afford right now. This job earned her little enough as it was.

 _6:01 am_. She was in good time this morning; there would be just enough time to eat a bowl of cereal before braving the ten minute walk into town. Four minutes, to be exact. She checked the kitchen cupboard for edible cereals and found a near-empty bowl of cornflakes, from which she poured about a third into a bowl. Benny could have the rest when he woke up, though it still wasn't enough for a growing boy. Lexi would give him it all, but she knew from the frenzied growling in her stomach that she had to eat - and soon. Benny would know if she didn't eat for his sake. She found it very hard to lie to her son.

 _6:03 am._ Stifling a yawn, Lexi looked forward every day to her daily cup of coffee that she could take advantage of at her second job of the day: at the office. It gave her an extra energy boost to get her through the long exhausting day. Though how pathetic it made her feel, unable to afford coffee herself yet practically aching for it by ten o' clock when her break finally came up. The office was by far the easiest job of the day; she could sit down and just work for a few hours. It was monotonous, sure, but its constant regularity was quite soothing in her otherwise hectic life.

 _6:05 am._ For now, a drink of water would have to suffice. The small quantity of cereal doused with icy droplets of milk went down too fast, and Lexi's stomach growled, expecting more. She seemed to eat less and less each day, feeling the obligation as a single mother to give Benny more and more. She swallowed down a few mouthful of the bitter water - how she still sometimes longed for the warming sustenance of magic - before dunking both bowl and plastic cup in the sink and pulling on her threadbare coat that at least covered her long bare arms. It was icy in the apartment; the heating wouldn't kick in until at least seven, if it decided to come on at all. She always made sure Benny's bed was covered in several layers of blankets so that the chill or the damp wouldn't get to him in the night. It was the least she could do.

Lexi shivered and pulled the coat tighter around her wide shoulders. Her breath was escaping her mouth in visible clouds of water vapour, proving it was cold - very cold. Her fingers already felt numb, but she had no gloves to slide onto her slender hands to alleviate the sting of the wintry air. She could barely manage to pull the large snow boots onto her feet, bought second hand from a kindly charity shop when the thin pumps she had worn since her arrival had finally fallen apart. They were good boots, Lexi thought gratefully, not for the first time. Sturdy. Good for the winter months.

 _6:06 am._ Late. She would have to hurry to get to the centre of town: not her favourite activity to do in the complete darkness and bitter chill of the early morning. But although she had to get to work, she never left before looking in affectionately at her son, snuggled deep in warn blissful sleep. She did this now, staring down enviously at the coiled form of Benny Junior with a smile before kissing him gently on the forehead. He sighed softly in his sleep and turned over as Lexi left the room, sending a last wistful look at her warm bed and her peacefully snoring son before heading out into the cold.

The blast of icy air slammed into her like a brick wall at high speed as she left the apartment. Mercifully it hadn't snowed overnight. But everything was shrouded by a imperceptibly thin layer of glittering frost - not that the darkness of the early morning allowed her to view the beauty that the frost brought with it. Light wouldn't arrive until about half seven these days, which meant Lexi had to navigate the dark deserted streets in the pitch blackness, attempting not to slip over on the black ice that preyed on unsuspecting humans when they least expected it. Invisible ice. Who came up with that _brilliant_ idea? Luckily her boots had good grip so if she treaded carefully - which often meant agonizingly slowly - she wouldn't slip. She couldn't afford to slip. She had to work full time: to pay the bills that seemed to be increasing in anount over the months, to pay for the necessities like heating and water and electricity, to buy food. If she didn't do all this, four jobs a day - Benny would die. She had to concentrate on that. It was good motivation.

Lexi hurried as quickly as she dared, feeling the icy embrace of the freezing air grip her shivering body, biting relentlessly at any bare surfaces of skin unprotected by material. She had to ignore the harsh ache in her belly that called of hunger, the weariness from yet another late night followed by an early morning, the pain surrounding her body like a constant forcefield. From blisters decorating her fingers and feet and bruised shoulders, to her cracked bleeding lips from the cold. Benny was all that was important in her small world now. She had to support him. A single mother had to do that. Sometimes she thought it was a pity she hadn't actually grown up as a human, so she had no qualifications, nothing. The only jobs accessible now were cleaning jobs that you needed no real qualifications for. That and her office job which she knew she had been lucky to get under the circumstances. It brought in just enough money combined to live on - just about.

The shop interior was lit only dimly when the shivering Lexi pushed open the side door that marked the employees' entrance. There was no-one around at this hour, but that didn't surprise her. The boss and the workers were probably enjoying a cushy morning in bed. Greeting her in the storeroom was just a mop and a bucket full to the brim of cold water on the floor. She was just the cleaner, after all. Who comes in early, scrubs the floor so it shines when illuminated by the bright clinical fluorescent lighting, and is paid as little money as they can legally get away with. It was the lowest of low job-wise, but what else could she do? With a heavy sigh that reverberated around the desolate shop - definitely empty, then - Lexi picked up the bucket and mop and got to work.

 _6:20 am_. Lexi hummed softly as she scrubbed the tiles - back and forth, back and forth - but it was a futile attempt to bring some life to the darkened store. The tune she was humming was an old Nekron melody that she dimly remembered from her youth on the distant planet, but back when she had heard it sung, it leapt and flowed with vibrance and rhythm. Here on Earth, with just her singing quietly, it seemed to go a little limp and flat. Still, it was good to hear the lilting melody and speak in her native tongue for a little while, even just to herself. She was completely fluent in English, of course, but she did sometimes revert back to Nekross language occasionally, when she needed the familiarity, much as she tried to forget it.

Her teeth were chattering and Lexi's fingers shook with the cold, where they gripped the icily cold mop handle. It felt freezing in the ship. No one ever thought to perhaps turn the heating on a little early for the cleaner - what would be the point? Don't waste the unnecessary money on a few minutes of extra heating, even though she's a human just like everyone else. The thought made her smile. She was a human now, at any rate.

People began to arrive at around quarter past seven, but Lexi had learnt by now not to look up, to keep her eyes firmly fixated on the shining floor in order to avoid the cold stares of the so-superior employees. All those sunny smiles when customers were around were just an act, a mask. Here people just ignored her as she scrubbed - side to side, left, then right - walking around her in their smart black shoes like she was nothing more than a part of one of the many displays dotted around the shop. It was unnerving, but she had grown used to it. She wasn't royalty any more here, after all. Lexi, proud princess of Nekron, was no more.

A glance up at the clock, a swift turn of the head, then quickly back to the floor. If she transferred her gaze anywhere other than the spot of the tiles she was scrubbing, even for a second of weakness, someone could see her looking up, 'neglecting' her worm. They were capable of judging her for even a momentary lapse in concentration, and lapses meant docked pay. Docked pay meant unpaid bills.

Unpaid bills meant no apartment.

The click read 7:23 am. Lexi was actually pleasantly surprised that it had gone that quickly. Just under twenty minutes until she could return to her son, leave this cold shrewd place. Quickly she lowered her head further so that no one could see her smile. Back to her son. Back to Benny. For now, she continued scrubbing, back and forth, left and right, a steady monotonous rhythm. It felt nice. Regular. Peaceful, even, despite the growing chatter around her as people began to arrive in larger numbers. Still Lexi mopped, moving over to the last section of the store where there weren't as many people around. 7:26 am. It felt like a countdown. For Lexi, it was. She found herself glancing up at the clock more frequently, watching the digital numbers tick by so slowly. She had finished the entire expanse of tiles now, but still she kept scrubbing the same section of floor, biding her time. Although she had finished, people would point fingers if she left too early. No one trusted the cleaner.

 _7:32 am._

 _7:39 am._

 _7:42 am._

7:45 am and she was moving, swiftly pulling on her coat, ignoring the stares and the murmurs that seemed to follow her everywhere. Single mothers seemed to get that here, no matter what the circumstances. Disapproval and false assumptions. Quickly she deposited the mop and bucket back in the storeroom, and as an afterthought pulled her hair out of its uncomfortable ponytail, feeling the familiar sensation of the silky soft strands caressing her cheeks, falling down past her shoulders. She knew people were watching her, but after 7:45 am it wasn't their time any more, it was hers. So she left through the employees' entrance, gladly abandoning the blank stares and the murky interior of the store for the sunrise and the glistening frost of the outside world.

It was still bitterly cold outside, and part of Lexi told her to retreat back to the relative warmth of the store; they were switching the heating on now as the employees arrived for work. The shop opened properly at eight. But going back inside would mean more judging from her peers, more of the same dismissal and questions asked. Plus, she had to get back to Benny. He had to leave for school at half eight. And Lexi always liked the half hour of peace with her son before her next job begun. Either she'd need to wake him up or he'd already be awake, wondering where she was.

This notion formed her resolve and she began to walk resolutely in the opposite direction to the shop, back towards the block of apartments that towered on the outskirts of town. The wintry air gripped her like an icy blanket and she had to force her feet to continue stepping forward, feeling the crunch of frost under them with every stride. Once again she was very glad of the sturdy boots.

The apartment was a welcome sight, although Lexi had to climb two flights of stairs to get to the second floor where her apartment was situated. Occasionally she would take the lift, but not often. Although Nekross were not superstitious, Lexi had found herself with am inexplicable dislike of lifts, ever since the Neverside incident. That 'incident' had given birth to her son, and she'd never regret it.

But she still tried to steer clear of lifts - just in case.

After ascending the two flights of stairs, feeling her aching limbs protest loudly, Lexi reentered her small apartment, noting with a sense of relief that the thermostat on the wall read 15.5°c - warmer than it had been most of the week. That meant the hearing was working again. Still not the comfortable temperatures of early autumn that she enjoyed most, but it was a start.

Benny was yawning and blearily blinking away the last fragments of shattered sleep when Lexi came into the bedroom, a smile coming easily to her lips as it always did when she looked into her son's trusting eyes. When she saw Benny, she remembered Tom, and that somehow made it all worthwhile.

"Morning, Benny," greeted Lexi, smiling like she hadn't had to get up at 5:45 am and work. She couldn't give her troubles to her son, he didn't need to worry about her.

Benny yawned sweetly. "Hi Mum."

His mother ruffled his hair fondly. "Time to get up."

After all, mused Lexi as Benny ran past her, she couldn't worry her ten year old son with unnecessary things like work and bills and survival. She had to keep him safe and happy. And so far, for the last seven months, she had managed to do just that. She had no support from family or friends like many had - her family were a different species, after all!

It was all up to her now.


End file.
